Kunzang Odsal Palyul Changchub Choling
Center for Buddhist Study and Practice in the Nyingma
Tradition
Poolesville, MD
June 8, 2016
I enter the Prayer Room which is open 24 hours a day. There are written instructions to remove my
shoes and turn off my phone. The room is
large and filled with hundreds of candle holders and small Buddha statues. A nun sits up front and prayers, sometimes in
silence but other times, she mumbles. She is Caucasian, my age. Her head is shaved. She wears a maroon cloth
that constantly falls down her right arm.
She adjusts and readjusts as she prays. She prays from a prayer book
that she uploaded on her IPAD tablet.
There are mats on the floor.
There are a few flimsy cushions and three card table chairs. I sit unabashed on one of the chairs. I grab a prayer book and make myself as
comfortable as I can on a hard, metal chair. I leaf through the book and jot
down prayers that speak to me.
- Ø May all be auspicious.
- Ø May we be born in good families, with clear intellect, free of pride and with great compassion.
- Ø By this virtue may I swiftly accomplish the state of AVALKITESHVARA.
Once the nun realizes that I am not praying, she prays out
loud, in English, for me to hear. As she
prays, she prepares a concoction of incense.
Each substance she adds has significance to her prayer. She prays for
the female Buddhists and I wonder if her focus today in on Hillary
Clinton. Hillary won the nomination last
night and I noticed her campaign yard signs when I drove in to the grounds.
The nun leaves the room and I am now alone in this prayer
room. I look around to see if anyone is
coming and it appears that I am alone now.
So I take out my phone and snap a few photos. I finish just as I hear
the door knob turn and see the nun again. She resumes her prayer stance and I
bury myself back in to my prayer book, relieved that I didn’t get caught taking
photos. I leave shortly thereafter and
wander the grounds.
Opening Prayer of
Blessings:
To the Root Guru, I
pray;
- Ø Grant blessings to accomplish the inexhaustible rainbow body
- Ø Grant blessings to accomplish the dissolution of the aggregate without remains
- Ø Grant blessings to conducive circumstances and obstacles
- Ø Grant blessings to be free from attachment to food and clothing
- Ø Grant blessings that my experience (visions) may be lucid without obscurations
- Ø Grant blessings to see my true face, the mind’s actual nature
- Ø Grant blessings to be free from the stain of discursive thoughts
- Ø Grant blessings to realize the stainless originally pure Nature
- Ø Grant blessings to be free from the duality of self and others.
- Ø Grant blessings to cleanse the darkness of ignorance.
- Ø Grant blessings that experience and realization may arise in my mind.
- Ø Grant blessings to accomplish the two purposes of benefiting self and others.
- Ø Grant blessings that the power of my speech may increase.
Bodhisattua Vow
I dedicate myself to
the liberation and salvation of all sentient beings. Offer my body, speech and mind in order to
accomplish the purpose of all sentient beings. I will return in whatever form
necessary, under extraordinary circumstances, to end suffering. Let me be born in times unpredictable, in
places unknown, until all sentient beings are liberated from the cycle of death
and rebirth.
Taking no thought for
my comfort or safety, precious Lama, make of me a pure and perfect instrument
by which the end of suffering and death in all forms might be realized. Let me
achieve perfect enlightenment for the sake of all beings. And then by my hand
and heart alone, may all beings achieve full enlightenment and perfect
liberation.
Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo
Shining Lake of
Crystal Tears
A Confessional
Prayer
Ayra Tara, Noble One
We bow down to your
Lotus Feet
And beg you to remain
enthroned
One the Lotus Throne
within our hearts
Oh Mother Tara, Holy
One, Perfect One
We are lost
Now more than ever
darkness comes
And we are overcome
with our weakness ad poor view
Yet You remain for us.
